1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing technology for printing sign information constituted by characters and/or marks on a medium.
2. Related Art
In an inkjet printer, an example of printing apparatuses that print images on a medium while ejecting inks onto the medium through nozzles, there occurs a case where sign information, such as characters and/or marks, is printed as needed. For example, when nozzle checking is performed in a printing apparatus, there occurs a case where not only nozzle check patterns but also body information and an error report are printed on the medium. Such information printed on the medium is sign information, such as characters and/or marks, and is printed using an ink of a specific color (typically, a black color) among a plurality of colors. In this case, however, when, during an operation of such a printer, clogging occurs in a nozzle for use in ejecting the black ink, the clogging blocks the ink of the black color from being ejected through the nozzle. Further, this trouble leads to a defect, such as missing of printing or blurring, in printed characters and/or marks, and this defect has sometimes made the printed body information and error report illegible.
Thus, it has been proposed to apply a technology disclosed in JP-A-2012-71458, that is, a technology that allows inks of colors other than the black color to be ejected and formed into inks of a mixed color to generate a black color so as to enable utilization of a so-called composite black color.
Unfortunately, however, clogging states of nozzles for colors other than the black color are unknown, and under a situation where clogging states of some of the nozzles for colors other than the black color have worsened, even though inks having predetermined amounts are ejected through the nozzles to print the body information and the error report, the printed body information and error report have sometimes been difficult to favorably read.